


Warming Up

by Airawyn



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-07
Updated: 2007-07-07
Packaged: 2017-12-05 19:24:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/727039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airawyn/pseuds/Airawyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bit of Veronica and Logan's friendship pre-series, before everything went south.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warming Up

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to ladybug218 for the nudge to write it and thanks to thebratqueen for the beta.

The Kanes seemed to have forgotten she was in the room. Veronica slipped around the dining table to the back door. She glanced over at Duncan, but he was too busy protesting that he wasn't involved to notice her. Veronica twisted the doorknob quietly and ducked out the back door onto the balcony of the ski lodge.  
  
Logan was there already, sitting on the bench with one of the blue and red quilts draped over his legs. He smiled at her, as if she was expected. He patted the spot on the bench next to him. "Have a seat," he said. "They'll be a little while."  
  
"I don't know," Veronica said hesitantly, looking back through the glass panels to see Celeste and Lilly face-to-face in a heated argument. "Maybe I should say something?"  
  
"They won't listen," Logan chuckled. "Trust me, I've tried. They have to get it out of their system, then everything'll be sunshine and roses. C'mere, sit down. You're shivering."  
  
She was, she realized. She'd hadn't thought to grab a jacket when she snuck out and any attempt to get one now would take her right through the path of the storm. She sat down next to Logan and he threw part of the quilt over her. She felt his arm around her shoulders and stiffened.   
  
"Relax, it's just about keeping warm," Logan said, tucking the blanket up around her. "I wouldn't want to get Duncan on my ass." His arm moved away from her and he produced a Thermos from somewhere in the folds of the quilt.  
  
"D-Duncan?" Veronica said, trying to pretend she didn't know what he was talking about even as her blush gave it away.  
  
"Yeah," Logan said, eyes twinkling. "Guy's got a major thing for you. I told him it was hopeless," he said, shaking his head. "I said, 'Sorry, dude, she'll never look at you when I'm around.'"  
  
"You said _what_?" Veronica's eyes widened in horror before she realized he was teasing her. "Damn you." She punched him lightly in the leg.  
  
"Hey, no beating on the guy with the hot chocolate," he said. "Everyone knows you two are nuts about each other."  
  
"I - no! - what?" she sputtered.  
  
Logan held up a finger. "Correction. Everyone minus two. But I'm working on him." He winked at her.  
  
Veronica's insides fluttered in terror at the thought of her secret crush being public news. Then the rest of it sank in. Duncan liked her. He _liked_ her. And Logan was on her side. Now her insides were doing an entirely different kind of fluttering. She felt a silly grin spread across her face. "Thanks," she said, not daring to look directly at him, even though he couldn't possibly miss the grin.  
  
"Anytime," he smiled. He twisted the top off the Thermos and poured her a cup.  
  
She paused before drinking. "Is it, uh..."  
  
"Spiked? Alas, no. The Bailey's is still in my suitcase. I didn't get a chance to add it."  
  
She drank it gratefully. Logan took a swig directly from the bottle.  
  
"You're really prepared," Veronica said. "Do they do this a lot?" She glanced worriedly at the door as some of the argument drifted out.  
  
 _"...competely irresponsible and you should know better."  
  
"Hey, I didn't-"  
  
"Don't even try that, you little weasel..."_  
  
"Nah," Logan said. "They just have to let off some steam sometimes. Too much pressure being the perfect American family." He grinned at her. "You should've seen them in Venice. Lilly pushed Duncan in the canal."  
  
Veronica giggled in spite of herself. "They never told me about that."  
  
"Well they wouldn't, would they? You can get dirt on Duncan from Lilly and dirt on Lilly from Duncan, but if you want dirt on *both*, you gotta come to me." He waggled his eyebrows.  
  
Veronica had a sudden twinge of jealousy. She'd been friends with Lilly for years, but it was Logan who had spent various vacations and holidays with Lilly and Duncan since they were little, even when he'd been living in New York and L.A. Celeste Kane and Lynn Echolls were friends from way back in college so they used to get together regularly.  
  
The moms had had a falling out since the Echolls moved to Neptune last year. The kids didn't know what it was about. Logan said his mom was always extra polite to Celeste and Lilly said Celeste just didn't mention Lynn unless she had to. Celeste and Aaron were still friendly, though, so it wasn't a problem for Duncan to invite Logan along for outings.  
  
"All right," Veronica said. "Spill it." It was hard to be jealous when she was around Logan, though. They'd been thrown together enough in social situations that they'd have to be at least friendly with each other, but Logan treated her the same way he did Lilly and Duncan. Sometimes it felt like the four of them had been friends all their lives.  
  
"Hmm." Logan tapped a finger to his lips in thought. "When Lilly was seven, she convinced Duncan to put on a dress and lip gloss and try out for a beauty pageant with her because she didn't want to be alone."  
  
Veronica's jaw dropped and she held a hand over her open mouth, not sure whether to double over laughing or punch him again for teasing her. "No way," she said, thinking of something. "She would've told me about that. She told me about the nail polish incident."  
  
Logan's grin widened. "But I haven't told you the best part yet."  
  
She wasn't going to fall for another of his jokes. She wasn't. She - yeah, right, as if Veronica Mars could ever not be curious. "And what is that?" she asked skeptically.  
  
"They both auditioned, but when the results came out, Lilly threw a fit. She didn't get accepted into the pageant - but Duncan did."  
  
"Nu-uh!"  
  
"Would I lie to you?" Logan asked innocently. She just raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh, right," he said. "But this is true. Somewhere in the Kane household there is a certificate from the Little Miss Balboa County Pageant with the name 'Dana Kane' inscribed on it."  
  
Veronica couldn't help it. She burst out laughing. Logan grabbed the hot chocolate cup from her hand before she could spill it. Veronica drew her legs up and hugged her knees, trying to smother her giggles in the hand-stitched calico covering her legs.  
  
"And _that_ ," Logan finished, "is why Lilly hates beauty pageants. Also why Duncan hates cherry lip gloss."  
  
Veronica's hand flew to her lips. Then she gave Logan a suspicious look.   
  
"Swear to God!" Logan said, holding up his hands (still holding the cup and Thermos, but managing not to spill) in a gesture of innocence. "Ask Lilly."  
  
"I plan to," she informed him.  
  
"Good for you," he smiled. He held out the cup to her. "Now, do you think you're in good enough condition to handle this?"  
  
"Yes, I am," she declared, snatching the cup from his hand.   
  
In the moment of silence as they both drank, Veronica noticed that the yelling had reduced to indecipherable murmuring.  
  
"Do you think...?" she asked hesitantly, looking over her shoulder at the door.  
  
Then the voices crescendoed into yelling again and the phrase  _"... that Echolls kid..."_  drifted out to them. Logan winced.  
  
"Maybe not yet," she said hastily.   
  
"We'll give them a little time," Logan agreed.


End file.
